A Common Destiny for All

9 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.^(A)

⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power^(A) until the coming of the salvation^(B) that is ready to be revealed^(C) in the last time.

²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them,^(A) and they follow me.^{(B) 28} I give them eternal life,^(C) and they shall never perish;^(D) no one will snatch them out of my hand.^{(E) 29} My Father, who has given them to me,^(F) is greater than all^[a];^(G) no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”^(H)

¹⁴ There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve.^(A) This too, I say, is meaningless.^(B)

¹² That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,^(A) because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard^(B) what I have entrusted to him until that day.^(C)

¹⁵ But now we call the arrogant^(A) blessed. Certainly evildoers^(B) prosper,^(C) and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”

The Faithful Remnant

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.^(D) A scroll^(E) of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared^(F) the Lord and honored his name.

¹⁷ “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my^(G) treasured possession.^(H) I will spare^(I) them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son^(J) who serves him. ¹⁸ And you will again see the distinction between the righteous^(K) and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.^(L)